Compatible Ink Cartridges vs Genuine

Compatible Ink Cartridges are finally being more readily accepted by the consumer now that the quality of them is improving. For many years the quality of the cartridges coming out of China was less than satisfactory. Nowadays with the fierce competition between the cartridge manufacturers if the quality isn’t there then the company simply wont survive. Let’s have a quick look at some of the advantages.

Advantages of compatible ink cartridges:

1. Price – this is the most obvious advantage. Compatible Cartridges are on average between 40 – 200% cheaper than the equivalent Genuine Printer Cartridge.

2. Page Yield – most (not all) compatibles contain more ink than the genuine equivalent. It is not unusual for a compatible to contain up to 3 times more ink. Typically however it is in the order of about 50% more.

3. Smudge Resistance – One advantage which is often overlooked is the drying time of various inks. Almost all compatible inks will dry almost instantly. Genuine, Oil based inks tend to take some time to dry. Personally I find this very annoying when printing invoices all day as the genuine oil based inks smudge as soon as you touch them !

4. High Quality Prints – Nowadays good quality compatible Inks produce similar quality photos and text as do the more expensive genuine. You may be interested in reading this in depth comparison between the two.

5. Genuine Cartridges are not made in China – this is not true! Most Genuine (OEM) cartridges are either made in China, Thailand or Malaysia and are actually made by companies which also specialise in compatible inks as well. Yes that’s right, most genuine ink cartridges are made by companies which also make the generic cartridges.

Compatible Cartridges and Printer Warranties

My printer warranty will be void if I use generic cartridges. This is a complete falsity. The Magnusson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act, states that it is illegal for a manufacturer to try and force you to use a specific product as a condition of a warranty. Printer manufacturers cannot void your printer warranty simply because you use compatible cartridges. Since 2007 we have been selling generic ink cartridges and we know for a fact that they do not cause any adverse effects which would cause a printer to fail.

No doubt there are many compatible inks out there which could damage your printer due to the very low grade ink used and also the poor moulding of the actual cartridge itself. This however is only the case if you buy the inks from a shonky retailer so make sure you read the reviews from other customers before you make a purchase.

Compatible Cartridges will damage my printer !

This is definitely not true. In seven years of selling Compatible Ink Cartridges we have never had a single case of a compatible causing a printer to breakdown. The only problem to occur with a generic cartridge is if they are a very low grade cartridge which uses low grade ink. This has been known to clog the print head of the printer. For very high quality compatibles visit our Adelaide store where we have been selling the same brand of compatibles for over 7 years.

The future of Generic Printer Cartridges

Due to the downturn in the economy and the ridiculous cost of genuine printer ink cartridges we believe that generic inks will become more and more popular. Another factor which comes into play is the fact that compatible inks are now being made to much higher quality standards. This makes them much more appealing considering the much lower cost. Yes generic inks are here to stay and providing they are good quality compatibles then they represent a huge saving.

Note: In the last 6 months or so the Brother printer company has started to microchip their ink cartridges in an attempt to win back some of their ink sales. They have been releasing regular firmware updates which stop the generic inks from being recognised once the update is installed.

If you have a late model Brother printer make sure that you turn off the software updates otherwise your compatible inks may no longer be recognised by your printer. The same tactic has been used by both Epson and HP for several years however the manufacturers of generic cartridges always find a way around these issues by releasing new cartridges with updated microchips which are compatible with the new firmware updates.